Megatrends

The most influential Megatrends set to shape the world through 2030, identified by Euromonitor International, help businesses better anticipate market developments and lead change for their industries.

Butter and Margarine in South Africa

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Executive Summary

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TRENDS

The development of the butter and margarine category in terms of both value and volume sales in 2017 continued to be challenged by changing breakfast habits among consumers. Due to their increasingly hectic lifestyles, a growing number of consumers no longer have breakfast at home on working days, and instead either stop at consumer foodservice outlets, especially coffee shops and street stalls/kiosks, or purchase something at the canteen/cafeteria at their workplace. Even those who still take breakfast at home often only have a coffee and a ready-to-eat product, such as a snack or muesli bar or a pastry. Consequently, sales of butter and margarine have been curtailed. However, industry players endeavoured to counter this trend by focusing on flavour innovation and in marketing their products as healthier than alternatives, though there are arguments for and against the alleged health benefits of both butter and margarine.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Unilever retained its strong lead in butter and margarine in 2017 holding a 37% retail value share. Much of its success stems from the popularity of its leading Rama brand, while its Stork and Flora brands also continued to sell well, though both experienced a contraction in their shares in recent years. The company has been creative in producing these products in a variety of sizes, making them easily affordable to a wider range of South Africans.

PROSPECTS

After years of buying margarine thanks to considerable positive media coverage about its benefits as opposed to butter, recent media attention suggests that most margarines may actually present more of a risk to health than butter and other animal fats. Trans fats are found in most kinds of margarine and are just as dangerous or even more dangerous than saturated fats, which were for many years regarded as the major cause of heart attacks. In general the harder the margarine the more trans fats it contains, with most hard margarines containing 27% of trans fats. Most people are completely unaware of the dangers in hard margarine and commercial pastries, which is often the cheapest and most popular margarines among the poorest in the country’s population.

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